


One Loss, One Gain

by lbk_princen



Series: Oneshots 'n Drabbles [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Death, I Just Wanted To Write A "What If" Fic About Karkat Calming Eridan Down, Idk Even Know What This Story Is Tbh, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, UA
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-21 10:54:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2465657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lbk_princen/pseuds/lbk_princen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dead, Karkat said. She's dead. All he had wanted was to protect her. He wanted to run away with her, keep her safe. Fuck the humans, fuck... fuck everything! Feferi was his whole world, and he had killed her. In a fit of rage he had destroyed the most beautiful thing left in this universe...</p><p>Eridan didn't notice the first tears start to slip down his face. He continues not to notice, his fists clenching and his lip wobbling as he stares over Karkat's head at the wall; until the short mutantblood reaches up and wipes the tears away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Loss, One Gain

Sollux's body sparked once, and steam curled up from his clothes. his head hung limp, and judging by the crack in the wall caused by his body's impact, the seadweller judged he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. He heard a sharp, surprised voice, a familiar cry. One that he might have heard if ever he had been hurt. But this time, she was crying for _him_.

Eridan tensed up. Anger boiled through him, anger at everyone who'd ever dismissed or demeaned him, anger at his own failures, pure bitter hatred to all those who had spurned him. His mind was hazy with rage, and his teeth were bared, eyes blazing with sheer, cold hatred as he raised his wand. 

A flash of white light, a spatter of purple -- purple so rich it was nearly pink -- a corpse sprawled out over a pile of horns. Eridan turned slowly, raising his wand again. Another angry shout rang out, accompanied by the rev of a chainsaw.

"STOP!"

The energy that had been charging in Eridan's wand didn't falter, but the violetblood turned his head just in time to see Karkat Vantas charging at him before another blast of power ripped through the air and blasted through Kanaya. 

Eridan wasn't prepared to stop. He would kill everybody, if he had to. Even Karkat, who had always been there for him, who had helped him even when he thought he had no one. It was for his own good. His snarl intensified, and his anger didn't abate as he pointed his want right at Karkat's chest....

But Karkat was so close now, pushing his hand out of the way, grabbing Eridan by the front of his shirt. His hands were so warm.

That was the only thought Eridan had.

It cut through the anger and the pain, his hands were warm.

Karkat's hands were warm.

And so was his face wen the mutant yanked him down and pushed their foreheads together. Karkat's eyes were hard, stern grey, but they glistened, a filmy sheen of translucent red tears spreading over his eyes. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he whispers.

Eridan says nothing, his thoughts whirling around too fast to focus. He is blindly aware of touching the tip of his wand to Karkat's side, and the shorter troll clenches up, his eyes ablaze with something akin to fury -- but it's nothing like what the seadweller is feeling.

A soft noise falls upon Eridan's ears, soothing and comforting. He blinks once slowly, and the snarl dies from his face.

Karkat is shooshing him.

Warm hands touch his face, bringing him down from his rage. "Come on Eridan, come back to me. Shoosh, yeah that's right... _Shoosh_." Karkat's voice is steady, throaty and low. Eridan's arms go limp, and his fins droop. 

A faint clatter rises, the sound of a wand contacting the metal paneling of the lab floor. The only other noise in the room is the room is the sound of two trolls breathing, harsh and fast and steadily calming. "Kar," Eridan croaks, and Karkat shakes his head, his thumbs sliding over the seadwellers' cheeks. "Kar..." he repeats. "...W-what did I do?"

"You made a fucking mess, is what you did." Karkat sounds weary, and his voice wavers slightly. Fingers adorned in gold rings clasp around a warm grey wrist and pull the mutant's hand away from the seadweller's face.

Eridan's eyes widen a bit, then squint painfully. "Fef," he breathes; "Fef, I shot fef... Is she.." he doesn't finish his sentence, and his fins lower even more, not in drooping in despondency this time but laying low and flat against his head in fear and shame. He doesn't dare turn around, afraid of what he'll see. 

Karkat doesn't look, keeping his eyes trained on Eridan, flicking between the violet's features. "She's dead." His voice is gentle, but no amount of gentleness could soften the blow, because with those two words Eridan's whole world shatters. 

_Dead_ , Karkat said. _She's **dead**._ All he had wanted was to protect her. He wanted to run away with her, keep her safe. Fuck the humans, fuck... fuck everything! Feferi was his whole world, and he had killed her. In a fit of rage he had destroyed the most beautiful thing left in this universe...

Eridan didn't notice the first tears start to slip down his face. He continues not to notice, his fists clenching and his lip wobbling as he stares over Karkat's head at the wall; until the short mutantblood reaches up and wipes the tears away. 

"Shhh... now isn't the time for that. You can mourn later. We.. We have to get out of here." Karkat's voice cuts through the noise in Eridan's head, the wails of despair that would have been audibly if it didn't feel like someone was strangling him. The Prince nodded mutely, and clutched at the hem of Karkat's shirt as he turned. 

Karkat's features softened, and he papped Eridan again, a soft, trailing touch to his tear-stained cheeks that made him shiver. "Help me grab Sollux."

Eridan was too shell-shocked to argue, and left his wand where it lay, abandoned and still faintly glowing on the floor in order to grab the psionics' feet and help Karkat haul him over to the transportalizer. 

The fishtroll stood on the telepad, helping support the troll he hated (though he didn't have the energy to hate him right now. He was too drained, too spent) between himself and the troll who could have the makings of his new moirail. His sad, sullen, grey eyes held with Karkat's fierce, pitying ones for that timeless instant in which his molecules came apart from one another to be put back together somewhere else. He almost wished they wouldn't, that he could tear apart and drift through the endless expanse of the Furthest Ring, because why would he want to bother with life now that he would never again hear the bubbly laugh that echoes through his head even as he vanishes from the lab.

Still in the lab the three males had just departed, a corpse stained green with blood twitches and starts to glow. Black manicured nails reach and grab hold of the white magic stick lying prone on the floor...

And snaps it in half.


End file.
